The 1000 Foot Experiment

[wbaker4]

I will be using a lot of RGB Pixels this year on various parts of the house and yard and was curious how far away the Pixel Stings can be from the controller.

I will be making my own network cables, so I took the 1000 foot roll of CAT6 cable and attached plugs on both ends.  I am using high speed differential drivers and receivers to handle the pixel data.  

I was happy to see that everything worked over the 1000 foot run!

I am providing power to the pixel strings locally - not sending it through the network cable.

[B.Y.R.G.]

So the pixel strings are 1000' from the pixel controller?  Impressive but why do you need it to be that long?

[k6ccc]

You might want to elaborate on what drivers and receivers you are using for the log run.

 

[ShaggySS]

Damn!  I am far from having that problem in suburbia.  

Though i am curious about how you are going that far.  Are you putting the pixel controller 1000 feet away from the computer? Not sure how that works since Cat5\6 distance is 1\3 that distance or are you using that cable to send the data from the controller to the lights?  I heard you  needed null pixels if you are going a distance less than 100 ft.  Please elaborate.  

[k6ccc]

He was talking about the distance from the pixel controller to the first pixel.  He is using differential drivers and receivers over the twisted pairs.  It is quite possible to go substantial distances compared to a single signal wires and ground.  Yes, under normal signal distribution, a null pixel would be required in as few as 6 feet (depending on the type of pixel).  This is a similar concept to sending audio as a balanced pair of wires rather than an unbalanced signal wire in a shield (except in the case of audio, there is no need for any active device at each end of the long circuit - only transformers).